← Glossary
Influencer Marketing
Impressions
The total number of times a piece of content was displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or engaged with. Broader than reach, which counts unique viewers.
What it means
Impressions count every display of a piece of content, including repeat views by the same person. A video someone watches three times generates three impressions but counts as one person in reach. Impressions measure volume: useful for understanding total exposure, but it says nothing about how many distinct people saw the content or engaged with it.
Examples
- •A post gets 50,000 impressions but only 30,000 reach, meaning many viewers saw it more than once.
- •A campaign report leads with total impressions to convey scale to a client.
- •An algorithm re-shows a popular post to the same users multiple times, inflating impressions relative to reach.
Use cases
- •Measuring total exposure of a brand awareness campaign.
- •Calculating CPM, priced per 1,000 impressions.
- •Comparing raw scale across platforms with different display behaviors.
Why it matters
Impressions alone overstate a campaign's real reach. A smart brief pairs impressions with reach and engagement rate to understand how often content was shown, to how many real people, and how well it landed.
Common questions
Reach counts unique people who saw the content at least once. Impressions count every individual display, including repeats to the same person.